Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/644565
18 Mississippi Kevin Cook, CEO, and Michael Henderson, MD, CMO, University of Mississippi Medical Center and Health System (Jackson) "e citizens of our state are widely dispersed and face significant economic disparities. ese disparities and geographic dispersion create barriers to accessing care in a timely and effec- tive manner. Many potential patients live in ar- eas with little health system infrastructure. e infrastructure that does exist is frequently overburdened or obsolete. Patients with one or more chronic diseases are at a significant disadvantage as the infrastructure that does exist is not well designed to track and effec- tively treat patients with these chronic conditions. Rural patients that develop significant diseases are delayed in diagnosis and treatment, leading to poorer outcomes. Late, acute episodic care is the norm. Much primary care, which includes screening, prevention and chronic disease management, can be delivered by care team members — nurse practitioners, RNs, medical assistants, phar- macists — under physician oversight. is 'health' care is best provided close to where patients live. But, a component of such dispersed care must also be training of that care team to recognize when specialist referral is indicated and provide ready access to such care. Such new models of care can occur through innovative leadership, training and the use of inexpensive, disruptive, modern technologies. Examples include telehealth, remote patient monitoring and the creation of wide coalitions of rural providers." Missouri Melinda Estes, MD, President and CEO, Saint Luke's Health System (Kansas City) "For our patient population, the biggest con- cern is access to high-quality healthcare. We have a number of rural hospitals; access to spe- cialty care is an issue. We have a multipronged approach starting with primary care. We have approximately 20 med- ical groups strategically placed throughout the communities we serve. We expanded to offer walk-in morning, evening and weekend hours. Saint Luke's is also partnered with [grocery chain] Hy-Vee. We are opening convenient care clinics at Hy-Vee stores over the next two years. e clinics will be staffed by advanced nurse practitioners, use our EMR and require no appointments. We are moving further away from a hospital platform, instead building large ambulatory care cen- ters in Kansas City. We are also addressing issues for rural patients with rotating specialists traveling to rural areas. We also use telemed- icine to connect with partner hospitals. Saint Luke's is partnered with 74 small and midsized hospitals to provide telemedicine support." Montana Nicholas Wolter, MD, CEO, Billings Clinic "My biggest concern is getting really good at population health. By that, I mean the ability to take care of high-cost patients with multi-dis- ease states and deliver more value. is takes a number of navigators. Instead of an occasional visit, far more oen, there's really a lot of care going on by the team. ere's a growing trend to try to find tele-approaches to help monitor patients in their homes. We haven't started that, but we're looking at it. It takes investment, culture change and physicians working in a differ- ent way with other team members, but it is our most important item at Billings Clinic. Last spring, we did work with PricewaterhouseCoo- pers to look at our infrastructure. We've also been updating grants to look at how to become a better team that supports physicians. In ad- dition, we've been working with Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health- care to get their advice. We manage 11 critical access hospitals, and soon, four are joining us in more formal ways. We're trying to look at how we manage these in a more regional, geographic way, including looking at patients as they go back and forth." Nebraska Kim Russel, President and CEO, Bryan Health (Lincoln) "I would say the biggest concern is access to healthcare services for two reasons. One is that Nebraska is one of the states that has not expanded the Medicaid program. e oth- er reason is because we are a very rural state, which creates challenges, especially for access to specialty care. We work very closely with the rural areas of the state on everything from physician recruitment to clinical education. We have a very ac- tive outreach program in which specialists actually go out to rural ar- eas to see patients so they don't have to travel. Cardiology physicians — who we call Bryan Heart physicians — lead the way in terms of outreach. In the past year, we've also started a new telehealth program. Bryan Health also has its own college of health sciences, called the Bryan College of Health Sciences. It's another avenue to train the next generation of health practitioners for our state." Nevada Chris Mowan, CEO, MountainView Hospital (Las Vegas) "e most pressing health concern in the Las Vegas market is access to primary care and a lack of primary care physicians. ere simply aren't enough physicians to serve our large and growing community. Nevada's physi- cian-to-population rank is 47th in the nation. Kevin Cook Dr. Michael Henderson